I am now out in Austin, Texas for MEC 2014. I’ve been asked about supported eDiscovery capabilities across Lync, SharePoint and Exchange. Here is some useful information which can help get you up and running.

Search on-premises and cloud-based mailboxes in the same eDiscovery search.

Search on-premises mailboxes by using the eDiscovery Center in SharePoint Online.

Hope that helps get you up and running.

Cheers

Nathan

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]]>http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2014/03/29/where-to-find-information-on-ediscovery-for-exchange-sharepoint-and-lync-either-online-or-on-premises/feed/0It’s time for a new challenge… can you help?http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2014/03/17/its-time-for-a-new-challenge-can-you-help/
http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2014/03/17/its-time-for-a-new-challenge-can-you-help/#commentsMon, 17 Mar 2014 22:00:15 +0000http://nathanwinters.co.uk/?p=468
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]]>I have been working at Microsoft in the technical pre-sales space for three and a half years now. In that time I’ve learnt a lot technically, in a business context and of course I’ve made contacts throughout the organization. I’ve also had the opportunity to co-author three books on Lync and Exchange and to speak at many technical conferences around the world.

Over the last year or so, I’ve found that the business development and colleague mentoring aspects of my role have become far more interesting to me, and the day to day technical nuts and bolts of Office 365 have started to take a back seat. I’m still very much amazed and enthralled by technology, especially the developments around Big Data and the Internet of Things, however I know that I’m looking for a new challenge.

That challenge should allow me to develop my career further as an all-round business leader with a particular focus on people, team and business unit development. Obviously I’m still heavily invested in the Office 365 and Microsoft devices space and these are areas I am keen to continue working in both technically and in a management capacity. However it is clear to me that over the next five years this world will change drastically.

Currently there is still much work to be done in migrating companies to the cloud, however more and more leading companies are taking that journey and gradually the products themselves are developing in such a way that deployment becomes a central part of the service. With that in mind, it seems clear that the future lies in driving adoption and with it business value for companies. This means a change of focus for many Microsoft partners, however it is one which can be phased in and one which brings exciting possibilities for development of a practice into new profitable areas. It means a move outside of the traditional IT led relationships to those held with business leaders like the Chief Marketing Officer and HR Director.

I’m looking to join an organization keen to take on this challenge, whether they are somewhere along the road, or just starting. I hope to lead a team to help people develop their skills and further their careers whilst feeling really connected to the outcomes that are derived by customers.

]]>http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/10/10/conferences-coming-up/feed/0Contributing to the UK English UM Preview Language pack.http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/04/11/contributing-to-the-uk-english-um-preview-language-pack/
http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/04/11/contributing-to-the-uk-english-um-preview-language-pack/#commentsWed, 11 Apr 2012 07:07:32 +0000http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/04/11/contributing-to-the-uk-english-um-preview-language-pack/
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]]>As those of you who have worked with Exchange 2010 will know, it is possible for those using Exchange UM to have their incoming voicemails transcribed to text and shown with the messaging in their inbox.

The only issue is that currently we have support for voicemail preview in the following language packs:

English (US) – (en-US)

French (France) – (fr-FR)

Italian – (it-IT)English (Canada) (en-CA)

Polish (pl-PL)

Portuguese (Portugal) (pt-PT)

Spanish (Spain) (es-ES)

As you can see, English (UK) – (en-GB) is not supported for preview. Simply put this is because there are very many flavours of English in the UK and getting a single pack to correctly understand all of them to a suitable level of accuracy is a huge technical challenge.

With that in mind Microsoft needs to collect sample data (i.e. voicemails) to work with so as to improve the algorithm. So, if you would like to assist in the development of a English UK language pack which supports voicemail preview feel free to follow the steps below:

Voice mail collection is controlled with a setting on the UM Mailbox Policy object. This means that the UM administrator can choose which UM-enabled users’ voice mail is collected. This is important because there may be users that do not want to (or should not) have any of their voice mail collected: perhaps they receive voice mail with financially sensitive information.

To turn on collection for a UM Mailbox Policy, use the Exchange Management Shell (PowerShell) and set the AllowVoiceMailAnalysis property to true.

The caller can prevent collection when they leave a message by pressing # instead of hanging up, and then choosing to mark the message private. This is also true if you are using the Protected Voice Mail feature.

For more information about language packs and Exchange UM see the link below:

I am very happy to say that I will be at The Experts Conference in San Diego this April.

The conference runs from April 29th to May 2nd. This time round I have two sessions, which will be as follows:

Dealing with those pesky PSTs. A look at archiving and discovery in Exchange 2010 and Office 365

A growing number of businesses face regulatory pressures to retain and retrieve business data. This session will look at the features available in Exchange 2010 to manage, maintain and retrieve large quantities of data. You will learn about your options for storing data either in large mailboxes, using the archive functionality of Exchange on premises or through archiving to Office 365. We will discuss where and when the different approaches make sense and cover what your options are if you already have a vast amount of data stored in an existing archiving platform. Finally we will take a look at the new PST Capture tool from Microsoft which gives a solution to the problem of locating and importing PSTs from across your network.

Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) – What is it an why should you care?

Outsourcing your mail filtering is nothing new, however that doesn’t mean it isn’t a complex area which needs careful consideration and configuration. In this session we will introduce the capabilities of FOPE before diving into a demo based walk through of its configuration including coverage of Exchange Hosted Encryption (EHE). We will cover standalone FOPE used to protect an on premises deployment of a messaging platform and then cover the differences when using FOPE with Office 365. Finally we will get into the detail of routing topologies covering how mail flows in different scenarios from standalone, to Office 365 passing through Hybrid on the way.

If you want more information about the conference then take a look at the website here:

As you may know, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to attend the first five years of Minasi Conferences held each year from 2006 to 2010. It gave me my first speaking opportunity and prompted me to get into writing (as well as photography!)

Well after a gap in 2011 the conference is back in 2012. Once again there is a great line up of speakers and the chance to hang out with some of the leaders of our industry. Sadly this year I won’t be able to make it as I’m going to be at another event in the US (more of which later). I have no doubt that it will be a great event!

Just a quick post to spread the announcement on the Exchange Team blog that MEC is back!

From what I’m told MEC was the best conference out there! A great chance for Exchange experts from all around the World to come together and share information about the latest and greatest in the world of messaging.

After an absence of 10 years, it’s back. To find out more checkout the post here:

]]>http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/03/08/microsoft-exchange-conference-mec-is-back/feed/0A further look at uCertify Prepkit 70-663http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/02/22/a-further-look-at-ucertify-prepkit-70-663/
http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/02/22/a-further-look-at-ucertify-prepkit-70-663/#commentsWed, 22 Feb 2012 21:22:19 +0000http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/02/22/a-further-look-at-ucertify-prepkit-70-663/
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]]>As I mentioned a while back I’ve been trying the uCertify Prepkit for the Microsoft Exchange 2010 Design exam (70-663). In fact I also used the Prepkit for the Configuration exam (70-662) as well.

Having passed both exams I thought it was time to share a few thoughts about the Prepkits.

The download and install process is very straightforward and it is possible to use a trial version which gives you a selection of tests whilst you decide whether they are right for you.

Once installed and fully licensed, a simple matter of inputting your purchase key into the software, there is a large range of information and test methods which help you study for your exam.

The Prepkit lays out the Exam Objectives and also has a range of Study Notes which outline key topics and which are supplemented by a couple of longer articles. It would be nice if these Study Notes were linked from the Exam Objectives so that there was a better flow from piece to piece however the information in general is useful.

Once you get down to the actual test material then there are various ways of learning including many ways to customise the actual tests by selecting the type of areas you want tested and also whether you want to be able to get the answers after each question or only at the end of the test.

Whilst testing, you can of course mark items for review and also tag items and give feedback on the questions. Your scores are logged and you can easily see which areas need more study and then take questions on those areas only. Equally you can simply retest questions that you got wrong before.

All in all, I found having sat and passed the exam, that the type of material in the 70-663 Prepkit wasn’t entirely representative of the material on the exam. The Prepkit material seems a little more suited to the 70-662 exam around configuration rather than more focussed on the design type questions in 70-663. Also 70-663 has a scenario type case study section where you must read a bunch of key information about a customer and come up with design suggestions. This isn’t covered at all in the Prepkit.

My feeling is that for the 70-663 exam whilst the Prepkit is full of useful Exchange related info I don’t think it was an ideal tool especially compared to the 70-662 Prepkit which was much better suited to that particular exam.

The ease of use and the general experience is good, but there is room for improvement in how the material matches the exam.

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]]>http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/02/22/a-further-look-at-ucertify-prepkit-70-663/feed/0Studying for the Exchange 2010 examshttp://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/01/10/studying-for-the-exchange-2010-exams/
http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/01/10/studying-for-the-exchange-2010-exams/#commentsTue, 10 Jan 2012 20:49:23 +0000http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/01/10/studying-for-the-exchange-2010-exams/
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]]>One of the things I’ve been a little slow in keeping up with is MCP exams. It’s something that I’m sorting out and in the next couple of weeks intend to take the two Exchange 2010 exams – 70-662 and 70-663.

I’ve used their products once or twice before and have found them generally easy to use with a decent number of questions. So I will be testing out their product and hopefully it will get me through the exam.

I will write up a longer review of the PrepKit once I’m done!

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]]>http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2012/01/10/studying-for-the-exchange-2010-exams/feed/2Creating certificates from the shell.http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2011/12/22/creating-certificates-from-the-shell/
http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2011/12/22/creating-certificates-from-the-shell/#commentsThu, 22 Dec 2011 11:54:46 +0000http://nathanwinters.co.uk/2011/12/22/creating-certificates-from-the-shell/
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]]>As always it seems, it’s been ages since I’ve actually blogged anything. Anyhow, having finally completed my first book Mastering Lync 2010 for Sybex, i’ve got some time back to build some labs…

… As always with modern technology there is a need for certificates. In this case I’m setting up a Hybrid Coexistence system for Exchange 2010 SP2 and Office 365 and need a cert for the ADFS box. Well one thing I finally figured out whilst writing the Lync book was how to generate a certificate request from the shell.

Here goes.

In this case I need a simple SSL cert with a single name – adfs.msexchangelab.co.uk

I find that the smoothest way of creating certificates these days is through the shell using certreq.exe. There is a lot of information on the subject of using certreq.exe available at the following links:

Essentially, the process is to create a request template file (.inf) for the required certificate and then to use the certreq.exe utility, which is installed by default on Windows Server 2008 R2, to create a certificate request file.

The template file for a simple SSL single name certificate is show in Code Sample 1.

Code Sample 1: .inf File Text Used to Create Single Name ADFS certificate

Once you have created the above file and saved it with the file extension .inf you will take the following steps to create the certificate:

From an Administrator CMD.exe prompt, change to the folder where the request template .inf file is stored and run the following command which will will pull settings from the adfscsr.inf file and output to the adfs.req file in the same directory.

certreq -new adfscsr.inf adfs.req

At this point you have created the certificate request for the required certificate. You will now need to copy the contents of the .req file and send it to your third-Party CA, such as Digicert or VeriSign.

P.S.

If you were thinking about creating SAN certificates in this way, then of course you can. You just need the correct .inf file. An example is Code Sample 2.